Infective endocarditis continues to be a life-threatening disease despite the availability of antimicrobial agents.' Even with successful antibiotic treatment, death in intractable heart failure is common because of aortic valve destruction. Furthermore, with the increased scope of cardiac surgical procedures, one of the most serious causes of postoperative failure is infection upon prosthetic ...

A 42-year-old patient was successfully treated for subacute bacterial endocarditis due to Esch. coli with oral trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole. The treatment lasted nine months and was continued through a period of cholestatic jaundice superimposed on hepatic damage due to subacute bacterial endocarditis. There were no toxic effects attributable to the two antibacterials despite their prolon...

We report an unusual case of early structural failure of the Freestyle stentless bioprosthesis 22 months after initial implantation. A 71-year-old woman, who had undergone stentless valve implantation by the subcoronary method, presented with a new diastolic murmur and progressive congestive heart failure 20 months after the initial implantation. Reoperation was performed using a stented biopro...

Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) is a disease characterised by the presence of vegetations on cardiac valves, which consist of fibrin and platelet aggregates and devoid of inflammation or bacteria. NBTE has increasingly been recognised as a condition associated with numerous diseases and a potentially life-threatening source of thromboembolism. NBTE is not a common entity; however i...

Embolic occlusion of the peripheral vessels is common in bacterial endocarditis, especially during the terminal stages, but occlusion of the coronary artery in this disease is unusual at any time. Virchow (1856) described coronary embolism in a case of recent endocarditis. Saphir (1933) surveying earlier reports of coronary embolism from all causes, found 35 cases reported since Virchow's origi...

Objective Despite improvements in its management, infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with poor survival. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multidisciplinary endocarditis team (ET), including a cardiologist, microbiologist and a cardiac surgeon, on the outcome of patients with acute IE according to medical or surgical treatment strategies. Methods We conducted an obs...

OBJECTIVE To assess the echocardiographic findings in patients with suspected infective endocarditis. METHODS Two hundred sixty-two patients with suspected infective endocarditis underwent transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiographic investigation. Images of vegetations, valvular abscesses, and acute periprosthetic insufficiency were analyzed, and the correlation with clinical and labo...